Galveston Getaway

In late June, just before Jason had his week-long intensive class in St. Louis, our family took a quick getaway trip to Galveston. A wonderfully generous member from our church offered their beach home/condo to us for the weekend. Our original plan to stay for two nights was shortened to just one night when Jaden unfortunately contracted strep right before we left. Thankfully, Jaden's health improved with antibiotics, and we didn't have to cancel the trip altogether.

We loved the use of our friends' condo as an easy spot for mealtimes and rest times during the day.

Every other time our family has visited Galveston, we've only gone for a day trip, so the main focus of our visits has always been time on the beach. Now that we had an opportunity to stay longer, we were excited to explore more of Galveston. We ended up getting an annual membership to a popular tourist attraction called Moody Gardens. We only explored about half of what Moody Gardens has to offer on this trip, but we loved all that we saw! And with our annual membership, we plan to return again soon. Our first stop at Moody Gardens was the Dinos Alive exhibit.

The tent was full of very realistic dinosaur animatrons. 

The animatrons were so realistic in fact, that poor Adley was quite frightened of the creatures! Good thing she had her daddy to protect her! :)

Here's an example of what we saw in the exhibit.

At the very end of the exhibit, our kids had a chance to "dig" for dinosaur bones or fossils.

Our next stop was to the Aquarium Pyramid. We loved seeing a variety of ocean animals.

This seahorse was surrounded by very, very tiny seahorse babies.

Jaden and Cody were most excited about seeing the sharks.

Another cool spot, though, was the sting ray touch tank. It wasn't easy to be patient and wait for the sting ray to swim within a reachable distance...

...but the wait was worth it when the boys finally were successful! How cool to actually touch a sting-ray! We learned that they aren't as intimidated if we touch them just with two fingers.

Another highlight of Moody Gardens on Day 1 was seeing the 4D movie on sharks. We all even got a little wet during this IMAX show!

After lunch and naptime back at the condo, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at Palm Beach-- Moody Garden's water park. The boys LOVED going on their first-ever water slides, floating in the wave pool, and relaxing along the lazy river. I didn't get any pictures of our family at this area since I didn't want to worry about finding a spot to stash my camera. This part of Moody Gardens was probably the boys' favorite, though!

The next day, we spent the entire morning at the beach. Last time we visited the beach with Adley, she was just starting to crawl and was attempting to eat all the sand. What a different experience she had this time! Adley just loved walking into the water and feeling the waves crash onto her. She was even a fan of digging in the mud-- and this time she only ate a little! :)

Cody and Jaden enjoyed their usual-- running into and jumping over the waves, swimming in the water, making sand castles, using water squirters on each other, and playing with sand toys. They always love time at the beach and could easily spend hours at a time there!

We ended our beach time with a picnic lunch-- yum!

God gave us such a beautiful day for a beach visit!

Before heading back home, we spent a couple more hours at Moody Gardens. This time, we explored the rotating exhibit at the hands-on discovery museum, currently The Science of Music. The museum wasn't very large, but some highlights included talking with each other through this long whisper-tube (and seeing each other on the TV screen!),

playing piano,

...and changing our voices to sound like chipmunks, Darth Vader, and other crazy-sounding characters. This last spot got the biggest laughs from the boys!

Our final Moody Gardens stop was going to the SpongeBob Underwater Adventure-- basically just an interactive movie loosely teaching kids about sea-life. Cody was actually chosen to be one of the "button-pushers" for the show. This meant that our family got seats right up front! Cody's job, along with two other kids, was to (you guessed it!) push a button any time it lit up along SpongeBob's journey. The buttons would often cause streams of bubbles to go out of the submarine, direct the sub along a new path, or fire various sea weapons. The kids in the audience got to decide where SpongeBob and Patrick would travel to along the way. Cody loved being a part of the action, and both boys seemed to think the show was just hilarious!

We loved the chance to spend time together as a family and to experience a new part of Galveston on this trip. We look forward to more Moody Gardens adventures to come this year!

Summer Days

Here's a bit of what we've been up to so far this summer...

Wild Week VBS

Early in June, Jaden and Cody attended Vacation Bible School at our church. Adley and I went for a few days too, helping with snacks and then in the nursery. The boys seemed to really enjoy their experience this year and loved connecting with some of their school friends. What they were most excited about, however, were the daily dress-up days.

Crazy Feet Day

Crazy Hair Day-- first time wearing hair spray paint!

Crazy Shades Day

Crazy Hat Day (with cousin Abby)

The week concluded with a closing program with the families on Friday night. We enjoyed playground time, free Chick-fil-A, and a sampling of kid VBS songs led by Jason on guitar.

Father's Day

We are SUPER thankful to God for this funny, caring, and dedicated Daddy. These three kiddos love their daddy immensely! We loved celebrating Father's Day with him by gifting him with some candy and new shoes and then enjoying a dinner with our extended family that evening.

Jaden's Tooth

Jaden reached a milestone this month with his first lost tooth! Several weeks prior, we noticed one of Jaden's permanent teeth starting to come in behind his baby tooth. After reading up on it, we found out this is a condition known as shark teeth (since a child essentially has two rows of teeth, like sharks). Supposedly, the condition usually works itself out, so we waited...

At first the baby tooth was hardly loose at all, since the permanent tooth obviously wasn't pushing it out at the roots. Eventually, the permanent tooth started moving forward, creating a gap between two of his front baby teeth. Believe it or not, this picture is taken BEFORE Jaden lost his tooth!

Jaden's stubborn little baby tooth hung on for dear life. Jaden complained about the tooth quite a bit but was reluctant to have us pull it out. We developed a nightly evening ritual of wiggling Jaden's tooth for a set number of seconds (as high a number as he'd allow!). As the permanent tooth started to push forward even more, it loosened up the baby tooth little by little. And then finally, one evening Mommy was able to successfully pull the tooth out!

Jaden was very proud and quite relieved to finally have his tooth out! That night, Jaden tucked his tooth into the Ninja Turtle tooth pillow that Mommy had made for him for Christmas. He was ecstatic to find a whole dollar in exchange for his tooth the next morning. What a fun occasion!

Library Programming

Cody and Jaden have always enjoyed listening to stories, but this summer they have become obsessed with listening to early chapter books. Mommy loves it! :) Some of their favorite series include A to Z Mysteries, Geronimo Stilton, Dragon Masters, Magic Tree House, and George Brown, Class Clown. Sometimes we'll read an entire chapter book in one sitting! All three kids have earned prizes at the library for their summer reading. Each time they earn a prize, they get to put their name on a pillar.

The second-level prize for the boys was a (somewhat cheesy) inflatable guitar.

Twice this summer I've taken Adley to the young toddler library storytime. The boys sat in the room alongside me as generally supportive big brothers. (I reminded them of all the many, many activities Adley has attended for them!) This storytime is well done, with the largest focus on songs and rhymes and just a few very short read-alouds. The storytime ends with an exploratory playtime-- Adley's favorite!

Learning Piano

Since the boys have some extra time at home this summer, I figured it'd be a good stretch of time for them to start piano lessons. So far, I've given them just a handful of lessons, and I've been pleasantly surprised about their eagerness to learn and play. Each week, they'll latch on to one song as their favorite and play it over and over again until it's memorized. It's such a joy hearing them play real songs on the piano!

Baking Cookies

Making cookies is one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen, so it's easy for me to say yes when the boys ask to make treats! Cody and Jaden have helped me make at least 3 different kinds of cookies over the past month. Their favorite was making (and eating!) the roll-out sugar cookies. Just for fun, I had the boys wear aprons for the first time while we baked. I think they felt pretty official!

Also for the first time ever, the boys helped roll and cut out cookies until the dough was done! Usually their interest wanes much sooner. It was so nice to have help all the way through the process.

These cookies are delicious right out of the oven.

But they are even better once they are covered in frosting! Yum! :)

Beatin' the Summer Heat

We've been spending a significant amount of time in the water this summer-- in the pool, shooting water guns, or going to splash pads. Even Adley enjoys getting wet. On this particular visit to a nearby splashpad, Adley surprised me with how brave she was walking into-- or even through-- the streams of water.

Wildlife Spotting

One day we came home from church and noticed a turtle slowly making its way across our street. How fun is that?! So, even though it was pouring rain, the boys ran over to "pet" a turtle for the first time.

Playtime Activities

Cody is turning out to be quite the little artist in our household. He loves to draw and often can be found at the kitchen table, creating some kind of a book. One day, he had the idea to decorate our curb.

Another day, he made an ocean scene in our driveway. His current favorite thing to do with chalk is to draw pictures using various shades of color and then using his hand to rub the colors all together.

The boys don't play with their train set too often anymore but when they do, they're all about creating large villages or scenes. On this particular day, Jaden and Cody wanted to copy the scene from the box. They took care to copy it EXACTLY, down to every last car and building.

Ever since they received these foam swords for their birthday, Cody and Jaden have been having sword fights almost daily. Adley LOVES jumping into the fray and has even started saying "hi-yah" whenever she swings the sword. Recently Jaden and Cody have decided that they need to use their left hands when battling with Adley so that the fight is more fair. :)

We've been loving the relaxed, easy-going pace of summer!

Swimming Lessons

At the beginning of the summer, Jaden and Cody took two weeks of swimming lessons from a lady who attends our church. The boys have taken lessons from this instructor (Mrs. McQuary) for the last few summers, so they are very comfortable with her. She pushes the boys hard but is also encouraging and makes the lessons fun. We've loved her!

This year, the lessons were at my friend Amy's pool. I loved having a good friend to chat with each day, and the boys enjoyed swimming with their friend Ella. Each day before we left for lessons, I would give Jaden, Cody and Adley a snack while I finished packing the rest of our supplies. A few days in a row, the boys ate their snack in the living room, and Adley joined right in. Cody and Jaden were excited to tell me that they were "having a meeting" together. :)

Over the course of the 6 lessons, Cody and Jaden made so much progress. Most especially they learned how to take breaths while swimming. By the second week of lessons, Jaden and Cody were swimming independently across the length of the pool! They both gained a lot of confidence in the water too. Here are some miscellaneous pictures from their lessons:

And here are a few videos:

Cody swimming the short length of the pool

Jaden swimming across the short length of the pool

Cody diving and gathering rings

Jaden diving and gathering rings

Cody having a swimming race against Ella's neighbor Jack

Jaden and Cody learning the backstroke

15 Months Old

Amidst all the craziness of Jaden and Cody's birthday festivities, our little girl quietly turned 15 months old. The best word to sum up Adley's personality this month would be "helpful." She is such an observant little girl, and we are always so touched by how she wants to help-- bringing water bottles or clothes to her brothers, setting the kitchen table with plates, bringing shoes to her Daddy, putting away plates and silverware from the dishwasher. In addition to being helpful, however, Adley has also become a little tornado-- creating piles of clutter everywhere she goes! The contrast is quite amusing, as this second quality is not helpful at all! We love her curiosity and endless energy, though, and this little sweetie warms our hearts each day.

A few more facts about Adley:

PHYSICAL

• Cut two top molars in early May
• Can successfully climb onto the couch and the piano bench 
• Regularly folds hands to pray as soon as we put her in the high chair
• Has started to "run" (more like a bouncy trot) when she's eager to get somewhere
• Can climb down the stairs independently but she only likes to go down on her bottom, bouncing down stair by stair
• Hair has started to grow much longer and will often hang into her eyes if Mommy doesn't pull it back with a hair tie; Has slight curls in the back too!

SLEEPING HABITS

• MUCH better month of sleeping!! Only woke up on a few nights when she was teething, but otherwise regularly sleeps through the night (praise the Lord!)
• Takes 1 afternoon nap (usually about 1 1/2 hours)
• Typically wakes up between 5-6:30 but will usually rest a bit longer while nursing with Mommy

EATING HABITS

• Nurses just twice a day (morning and night)
• Loves banging her milk cup on her high chair tray, splattering milk everywhere!
• Loudly grunts or screeches when she sees a family member having dessert
• Will take a cup from the cabinet and hold it up to the fridge water dispenser whenever she wants a drink 

LANGUAGE

• New word = "paper" (whenever she wants to color a picture)
• Loves pointing out balls in books
• Will bark like a dog whenever she sees a dog on the street or in a book
• Can show us her tongue when we ask
• Calls Daddy "mama" and Mommy "Mommeeee" and both brothers "daduh"

PLAYTIME/OTHER

• Has enjoyed playing with the water table and going swimming this month
• LOVES markers and pens; has opened them and colored on herself a few times (oops!)
• Developed an annoying habit of throwing every ball she gets into the street and trying to chase after them whenever the family is outside
• Starting to listen to books for a longer period of time, as long as they are interactive 
• Short attention span with toys, constantly moves from one activity to the next, pulling things out of containers and making messes as she goes!
• Has developed a longer reach to take her brothers' toys off the table and even silverware out of the silverware drawer!
• Whenever she's playing outside and sees a car drive by, she stops to wave